Why Every Little Brown Girl Should Have A Malaville Doll

Dolls with multiple shades of beautiful brown skin and different textures of gorgeous kinky curly hair? Yes please. As a doll collector, model Mala Bryan created Malaville Dolls to fill the void that was missing in her personal doll collection- dolls that actually look like her, and a lot of the rest of us brown skinned beauties. When creating the dolls, Mala made sure to choose fibers that included both kinky and looser curls to depict the diversity of our natural hair.

The Malaville debut collection features four dolls, The Malanites who are citizens of Malaville. Each doll is a different shade of brown and has a different texture of kinky curly hair, and each also has a glamorous job and uber fashionable outfit.

Mala, The Fashion Designer

Maisha, The Fashion Stylist

Mhina, The Party Planner

Malina, The Fashion Model

It’s no secret that the selection of dolls on the market from the major brands that is supposed to represent the beauty of us brown girls, from skin tone to hair texture, falls short. Aside from the occasional limited edition doll or celebrity honor, I don’t see many (if you know of any feel free to leave them in the comments.) Our little brown girls need to have dolls that look like them, to let them know that their black is beautiful and help them to embrace their skin tone, natural hair and beauty. I am happy to see a collection of dolls that address this need and can’t wait to see more from Malaville. I’ll be picking up a doll for my niece and god-daughter, and maybe even one for myself.

Learn more about the Malaville Dolls and shop the collection at Malaville Toys$20

Erica

When I’m not hunting down the latest and greatest beauty products, beating a face or lacing a do, you can find me roaming the streets of NYC in my stilettos looking for the next best restaurant. Or in the kitchen trying to outdo myself from the last time.

I walked into a store in nigeria recently (live here) and noticed they stocked black dolls with kinky hair and our traditional wears for different tribes. It might seem insignificant to an outsider but I was impressed that someone has taken it upon themselves to make dolls that represent us to our children so we aren’t stuck with buying them only Caucasian type dolls.